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IBM Engineering Workflow Management vs Microsoft Azure DevOps comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.2
IBM Engineering Workflow Management boosts productivity by 30%, enhancing team efficiency and leadership insights with user-friendly tracking features.
Sentiment score
7.2
Microsoft Azure DevOps boosts ROI through productivity, streamlined processes, and management ease, with integration improvements needed for non-Microsoft tools.
On a scale of one to ten, where ten is the best, I would say ROI is an eight.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.1
IBM Engineering Workflow Management offers reliable, skilled support with effective local vendor assistance, though customization and forum support are limited.
Sentiment score
7.0
Microsoft Azure DevOps support has mixed reviews, with praise for speed but criticism for complex issue handling.
Resolving issues took time since understanding our unique problems was not always straightforward for support teams.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
IBM Engineering Workflow Management is scalable and adaptable, with some integration challenges and performance improvement needs noted by users.
Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Azure DevOps efficiently scales to meet diverse organizational needs, supporting projects from small teams to extensive deployments.
The scalability has left me pleased, not just for our teams in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, but as we expanded into North America, Africa, and even Australia.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.7
IBM Engineering Workflow Management's stability varies with customizations, server factors, and deployment planning, affecting performance for some users.
Sentiment score
8.0
Microsoft Azure DevOps is praised for stability and reliability, with minor issues quickly resolved, requiring a solid internet connection.
The solution is stable, and we did not encounter any stability issues.
Everything works ninety-nine percent well.
 

Room For Improvement

IBM Engineering Workflow Management faces challenges in integration, customization, usability, vendor reliance, and requires enhanced tools and cloud adaptability.
Azure DevOps users seek better integration, reporting, project management, customization, security, updates, and documentation enhancements.
Improved graphics in terms of metrics and connectivity to SharePoint from Microsoft products would be beneficial.
Those processes are a bit difficult for some customers who may not have technical knowledge and don't go through the entire documentation.
Out of the box, the solution is effective, yet with advancements in AI, it has the potential to be more intuitive.
Instead of customers having to try many options themselves, they benefit from practitioner recommendations.
 

Setup Cost

IBM Engineering Workflow Management offers flexible licensing with complex yet worthwhile pricing, yielding strong ROI and excellent support.
Microsoft Azure DevOps offers competitive pricing with flexible options, considered affordable compared to Jira and AWS, with a free tier.
They don't even provide a POC where you can have a sandbox or stuff that you can go through and see how exactly it's costing.
I find it to be expensive.
 

Valuable Features

IBM Engineering Workflow Management enhances software development with task linking, traceability, agile support, and seamless change management integration.
Microsoft Azure DevOps enhances productivity with seamless Microsoft integration, CI/CD pipelines, automation, robust security, and agile support.
It provides more efficiencies for our scrum team, ensures everyone is on the same page, and offers leadership insight into progress.
No organization would use just one vendor, and the goal is about what works well, is scalable, performs well, and offers a reasonable total cost of ownership.
I can't approve my own request and move the code around without a review.
Our company organized a training session with a certified Azure expert, which was extremely beneficial for adopting best practices during the initial three months.
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Engineering Workflow Ma...
Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
10th
Average Rating
6.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Software Configuration Management (4th)
Microsoft Azure DevOps
Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
133
Ranking in other categories
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites (2nd), Release Automation (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Enterprise Agile Planning Tools category, the mindshare of IBM Engineering Workflow Management is 1.3%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure DevOps is 38.9%, down from 41.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Suvajit Chakraborty - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers good traceability elements but UI needs improvement
There is room for improvement in the UI. The UI has to improve a lot compared to the competitive tools, like Atlassian Jira, for example. It's very easy to use. It is easy to manage and easy to use. Anybody can learn it right quickly and start with it. But IBM ELM is something where somebody has to have good knowledge, training, and understanding and then only start using it. But there's a big known knowledge curve for IBM ELM. But once that is there, it's normally; organizations do have their own internal team to basically manage it IBM ELM portfolio, the tool chain. So if they have internal teams who are doing it for quite some time, not something new, then it is definitely better. But if there's if somebody is starting new, definitely there is a knowledge curve time it can take at least a year or maybe a couple of years before they can start realizing the benefits.
Ivan Angelov - PeerSpot reviewer
Facilitates agile transformation with potential for enhanced intuitiveness
What I liked about the solution is that it offers numerous features that are not available by default unless you are agile. Transitioning from the traditional Waterfall model to an agile methodology was challenging for us. Until 2020, our team predominantly worked with the Waterfall approach, using local tools like ServiceNow. We had a few team members who were familiar with Agile ISO, but none had experience with Azure. Therefore, we pursued Azure certification at the AZ-900 level. Our company organized a training session with a certified Azure expert, which was extremely beneficial for adopting best practices during the initial three months. This preparation helped us get accustomed to the new tool, as transitioning to a new system invariably requires time. Managing a pipeline of deliverables became significantly easier with this solution. We utilized it for stories and integrated change management with Azure DevOps. Eventually, everything related to the environment was organized there, enabling us to follow up and track progress with our technical engineers on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis. Reports were automatically generated and sent to management, offering them insights into our progress concerning the predefined roadmap.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
18%
Government
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Engineering Workflow Management?
We can track the status of test cases (passed or saved) in a single view. Based on releases and other attributes, we generate various reports and extract metrics from the data.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Engineering Workflow Management?
I've heard IBM Engineering Workflow Management is more expensive than other tools. On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten.
What needs improvement with IBM Engineering Workflow Management?
Improved graphics in terms of metrics and connectivity to SharePoint from Microsoft products would be beneficial.
Which is better - Jira or Microsoft Azure DevOps?
Jira is a great centralized tool for just about everything, from local team management to keeping track of products and work logs. It is easy to implement and navigate, and it is stable and scalabl...
Which is better - TFS or Azure DevOps?
TFS and Azure DevOps are different in many ways. TFS was designed for admins, and only offers incremental improvements. In addition, TFS seems complicated to use and I don’t think it has a very fri...
What do you like most about Microsoft Azure DevOps?
Valuable features for project management and tracking in Azure DevOps include a portal displaying test results, check-in/check-out activity, and developer/tester productivity.
 

Also Known As

IBM Rational Team Concert (IBM ALM), IBM RTC
Azure DevOps, VSTS, Visual Studio Team Services, MS Azure DevOps
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Telstra Corporation, Visteon, Atos SE, Panasonic Automotive Systems, IBM Global Technology Services, CareCore National, JTEKT Corp., ItaÒ BBA, Avea, CACEIS, Danske Bank Group, APIS IT
Alaska Airlines, Iberia Airlines, Columbia, Skype
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Engineering Workflow Management vs. Microsoft Azure DevOps and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
851,491 professionals have used our research since 2012.